


I was Lightning before the Thunder

by lynndaem



Series: What's up, Danger? [2]
Category: B.A.P, K-pop
Genre: Alternative Universe - Superheros, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, inspired by marvel and DC
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-16
Updated: 2019-03-17
Packaged: 2019-11-18 19:50:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18125711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lynndaem/pseuds/lynndaem
Summary: After ‘The Incident’ involving the vigilante, Daehyun found himself looking over his shoulder more and more as he went through the motions of each day. He was more cautious when he walked home each night, almost expecting the Light City vigilante to come stumbling out of the darkness of each alley—or worse, his friend coming out of the shadows and trying to shoot him again.So yeah, one could say he was paranoid.





	1. Prologue

After ‘The Incident’ involving the vigilante, Daehyun found himself looking over his shoulder more and more as he went through the motions of each day. He was more cautious when he walked home each night, almost expecting the Light City vigilante to come stumbling out of the darkness of each alley—or worse, his friend coming out of the shadows and trying to shoot him again.

So yeah, one could say he was paranoid.

He hadn’t taken the barely concealed threat lightly, either. He had been careful since that night not to use his speed in public. Aside from one or two small interventions, he hadn’t used his abilities outside of his apartment in nearly two weeks. He had even taken to heading home at an earlier hour and walking home at a normal, human pace.

He hated it.

He felt like everything was going too slow and taking too much time and it left him to dwell on his thoughts too much, because without his speed, he just wasn’t getting things done fast enough. The only positive side to all of it was that he hadn’t eaten nearly as much as he usually did, though these sorts of discoveries always did bring up a lot more questions about his abilities that he knew he would have to study further.

With a sigh, Daehyun slide his key into the lock of his front door, jiggling it until he finally could get it to turn and then fighting with it to even pull it out. Honestly, he wished he would have billed Youngjae and Himchan for the damages done to his apartment. First, they broke his window, then they messed up his front door. His apartment was shitty enough as it was, he didn’t need the extra help to make it worse, thank you very much, he thought to himself as he finally pushed the door open. He kicked off his shoes, dropping his keys onto the table near the door.

He wasn’t even two full steps into his apartment when the wave of uneasiness washed over him, the slight rustle of fabric and the creak of a floorboard despite his feet not moving setting him on edge. His heart rate picked up and the too loud tick of the analog clock on his wall stretched out until there was a long pause of silence between each click.

Daehyun only managed to sustain the speed to freeze time around him for a few seconds, everything speeding back to real time at once as he turned to attempt to land a surprise attack on who ever had decided to break into his apartment.

Unfortunately for him, the intruder seemed to have anticipated that he would do something like that. A hand caught his fist with ease, twisting his wrist back and causing Daehyun move with the force. In one graceful motion, Daehyun found himself with his arm twisted and pinned behind his back and his pained yelp being smothered by the clamping of a gloved hand over his mouth.

Daehyun struggled, pulling forward and trying to twist away from the hold but the pressure on his wrist only increased. He stilled for the most part, shifting his weight uncomfortably to try and ease the dull ache radiating down his arm. The slight chuckle from the man behind him caught him off guard but did nothing to slow the fast thrum of his heart.

“You know, I didn’t think anyone would actually be able to sneak up on you like this.” Daehyun frowned now, the low voice next to his ear sounding oddly familiar. “You would think, with someone with speed like yours, you would have a better reaction time.”

Daehyun felt like his stomach had simultaneously dropped to the floor and leapt into his throat at just the mention of his speed. He tried to pull forward again, a slight whimper of pain making its way past the rough material of the glove.

“Nah-uh, you’re going to stand still and you’re going to listen. Are you alone tonight?” Daehyun nodded his head carefully. “Will anyone be coming to look for you this weekend?” Daehyun shut his eyes tight, shaking his head as fear gripped at his speeding heart. “Good. I’m going to let go and you’re not going to bolt. Do you understand?”

Daehyun nodded his head again, trying to calm the rapid beat of his heart to stay in the moment. He wasn’t sure if the intruder had placed any sort traps throughout his apartment, or if there was backup now waiting outside of his door in anticipation for him to speed out. His only option was to go along with the order not to bolt. He took in a shaky gasp of air when his arm was released and the hand over his mouth was removed.

“I’m not sure if it should be a relief to see how bad you are at defending yourself or if I should just find you pathetic, Daehyun.”

With his wrist cradled in his hand, Daehyun turned slowly to face the man behind him. His eyes widened as it clicked into place just exactly why the voice was familiar, “Himchan?”

“The one and only.” Himchan smirked.

Daehyun’s frown deepened as he flexed his fingers and continued to rub his wrist. “Can’t say I’m happy to see you. What is with the creepy breaking and entering attack?” He asked, trying not to let it show in his voice just how much it had frightened him.

“Well, Daehyun. We need your help.”


	2. Spontaneous Combustion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes when you fail to prepare, you are really only preparing to fail.

“Well, Daehyun. We need your help.”

“’Need my help’—why couldn’t you have just asked me, like a normal person. Why did you have to do…” Daehyun waved his hands around, “…all of this!”

The smirk never left Himchan’s face, “Let’s just say ‘all of this’ was to soothe my own curiosity.”

“Soothe your—what were you curious about?” Daehyun crossed his arms, a sudden feeling of defensiveness washing over him. He shifted his weight nervously from one foot to the other, as if he were about to take off.

“I was curious about your reaction time. You made it across the room in less than a second and caught three bullets out of the air. With that sort of speed, you should be untouchable. Impossible to sneak up on.” Himchan states, the glint in his eye making Daehyun feel increasingly nervous. “You should be able to get away from any situation without even breaking a sweat. However… I see now that you could definitely benefit from a few training sessions. Your fighting skills are… rather pathetic.”

“Did you just come here to scare the shit out of me and then insult me?” Daehyun asked, his voice on edge.

“No, but it is quite fun. Like I said a minute ago, we need your help.”

“I’m guessing by we, you mean—”

“Yes. So, are you in?” Himchan cuts him off, tilting his head slightly as he observes Daehyun’s reaction. He’s still standing with his arms crossed tight across his chest, the tension winding up his body clearly visible in the way that he stood.

Still, Daehyun tried to let out a breath and let his shoulders relax some as he glanced up at Himchan, “Do I have a choice in this, like, honestly? If I say no, are you just going to knock me out again or will you just keep showing up and trying to give me heart attacks?”

Himchan lets out an honest laugh, shaking his head, “No, Daehyun. If you don’t want to help, then that is that.”

Daehyun holds Himchan’s gaze. Sure, he sounded truthful but Daehyun wasn’t sure if he could actually trust him. After all, the only thing he really knew about Himchan was that he was willing to shoot him just two weeks ago. He couldn’t deny, however, that his own curiosity had now been piqued. What exactly did they need his help with anyways, and what help could he even offer? He was probably going to regret the words the second they came from his mouth but with a sigh, he let his arms drop, “Okay. Okay, I’ll do it. What do you need my help with?”

“We will talk about it when we get to the bunker.” Himchan says with ease, as if he had known Daehyun was going to agree to the request. Maybe he did, maybe Daehyun was just that easy to predict. “Do you need to grab anything before we leave?” Daehyun’s confusion must have been evident on his face because Himchan was soon letting out an exasperated sigh, “As in, do you need to grab any sort of gear… to run in? Do you have a mask?”

“Oh… no, I don’t have any of that… I just… run like this!” Daehyun says, motioning down at the clothes currently on his body. The band t-shirt and jeans didn’t exactly scream out ‘heroic’ or ‘vigilante in the making’. “I move fast, no one can see what I’m wearing or who I am anyways.”

“Right.” Himchan nods and turns away, “Well, if you don’t need to grab anything then we should get going.”

Daehyun is quick to stuff his feet back into his shoes before grabbing his keys. He has to pause to force his door shut again and fight with the messed-up lock to secure his apartment. Though, since Himchan has proven someone could break in still, Daehyun pondered what the actual point of locking the door was anyways. By the time he snapped out of his thoughts and locked the door, Himchan was already halfway down the stairs.

It wasn’t anything a little speed couldn’t fix and the small gust of wind from him stopping on the landing behind Himchan was the only indication to the other that he had even used his speed to catch up with him.  

“So, where is this bunker at anyways? Oh! Is it like a secret lair? Is there like, weirdly specific lighting and all sorts of weird gadgets and weapons in there—”

“Daehyun.”

Daehyun snapped his mouth shut with a quiet “sorry”, hopping down the last few steps. There was only a small break of silence between the two of them as they headed towards the unmarked van parked on the street outside his apartment, and then Daehyun began to talk again, “I know you said we could talk about the help more once we got there, but like, the thing you need help with, is it something I will have to do tonight orrr?” His voice trailed off.

“No, it is not required tonight as far as I know. Why? Are you expecting it to be? Do you have plans this weekend?” Himchan looks over at Daehyun, the smirk and lift of his eyebrow making Daehyun blush.

“What? N-no. I don’t have any plans. I just…” He puffed out his cheeks, “I was just going to ask if we could stop to get something to eat first, on the way? There’s a Burger Junky down the road—” Daehyun didn’t miss the way Himchan’s nose scrunched up in distaste at the mention of the fast food joint, “Don’t make that face. I know it’s not healthy but it’s good, okay, and most importantly, it’s a lot of calories. Look, can we please just stop for food, I won’t be useful to you guys unless I eat, even if we aren’t doing anything tonight.”

“So, what you’re saying is: you can’t run unless you’ve eaten?” Though he was still disgusted by the thought of the overly greasy food at the burger joint, Himchan couldn’t hide the curiosity in his voice. They had been running surveillance on Daehyun for two weeks now and they had yet to learn any useful information aside from establishing patterns in his behavior.

“I can still run, just not as fast and not for long.” Daehyun said as he climbed into the van and got comfortable in the passenger seat. He pulled the seatbelt across his body as he continued, “I don’t really have the means to test anything, so it’s all theoretical at the moment. When I first… became how I am, I took a lot of notes to monitor my condition. If I exert too much energy, I pass out. The only way I’ve managed to combat that issue is by consuming more calories. I’ve just assumed my metabolism is faster than normal now.”

Himchan nodded his head, filing the facts away for later study, “So, you move fast and your metabolism is fast. Is that all?”

“Uhm, my resting heart rate is really high?” Daehyun offers with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Interesting.” Himchan watches the road, voicing his next question as candid as he could, “So how did you end up this way?”

Even with his eyes on the road, he could see the way Daehyun stiffed in his peripheral. His hand fluttered to rest over his heart, and he looked out the window, away from Himchan.

“I don’t want to talk about that.” He said, his voice strained.

“Right.” Himchan knew the story would come out sooner or later, so he didn’t press the issue. He could tell Daehyun was clearly uncomfortable. “So, where is this burger place at?”

 

Nearly one hour, four triple stacks, six order of large fries, and two large milkshakes (all paid for by Himchan, after Daehyun helpfully reminded him about how they had broken his window, his door, oh, and drugged him just a couple of weeks ago) later, they pulled up into the decrepit parking lot outside of an abandoned warehouse just on the outskirts of Light City. Daehyun had already eaten every last bit of the food minus one or two fries that Himchan stole and was working on the second milkshake. He let the straw fall out of his mouth when Himchan put the van into park, “Really? This is really cliché you know?”

Himchan rolled his eyes, “Yes I know. Just get out of the van and come on.”

Daehyun nodded his head, bringing along his milkshake as he followed behind Himchan. There wasn’t anything interesting to see once they had stepped inside of the warehouse.  A few empty shelves stood at the far side of the room, the shipping containers that probably sat on them once upon a time long gone. The floor was covered in a fine layer of dirt and dust and some graffiti decorated the walls. All in all, it looked like nothing special. He almost missed the outline of the panel hidden seamlessly in the wall, only spotting it’s outline once Himchan had approached the spot. He raised his eyebrows when the doors slid back with silent ease, revealing the metal spiral staircase that lead down. He resisted the urge to speed past Himchan to explore every inch of this vigilante bunker and instead followed after at a normal, human pace.

“Hey. Any progress?” Himchan called into the room below once he was halfway down the steps. Daehyun was quick on his heels as he heard another familiar voice call back.

“Sort of. I ran the Archetype protocol to pull up the schematics of the building. We already know that Backfire plans to detonate the bomb at some point during the gala tomorrow night, but considering how large the convention center is, there are at least six different places he could have planted it. So now, it is just a matter of either disarming it—” Youngjae turned away from the bank of computer monitors, leaning back in the roller chair and flashing Daehyun a dangerous smile, “—or running it out of the city.”

Daehyun spluttered, nearly dropping his almost empty milkshake, “Wait, is that what you needed my help with? You want me to literally pick up a bomb? And run it out of the city?” He asked, almost half expecting Youngjae or Himchan to burst into laughter and admit that it was some sort of joke. However, Youngjae merely raised his eyebrows with a look of absolute seriousness on his face.

“Do you know how to disarm a bomb?

“No?”

“Then yes. We are asking you to literally pick it up and run it out of the city,” Youngjae said, “Once we start to make our move at the gala, Backfire is going to notice, and he is going to try and move his timetable up. There’s no guarantee of how long we will have once he activates the bomb so we need to get it out of there as quick as possible or we could be looking at the destruction of a whole city block. Himchan and I will take him down, we just need you to get your hands on that bomb and get it outside the city.”

Daehyun held the milkshake with both hands, chewing nervously at the cheap plastic straw. He wasn’t exactly sure what he had been expecting when Himchan had shown up in his apartment, but exploding bombs was not on the list of possibilities that had ran through his mind. “Are you sure that I won’t cause it to go off if I move too fast with it?”

Youngjae frowned, a thoughtful look crossing his features before he glanced over at Himchan. It was clearly something that they hadn’t thought about, “Is that a thing that could happen?”

“Depends on how fast he’s moving, I guess.”  

They both looked to him simultaneously, almost expectant, and Daehyun looked startled, “I don’t know how fast I can go. It’s not like I can go down to the LCPD and ask a cop ‘hey, use your radar on me and tell me how fast I am going!’”

“No, but you could always use a stop watch and just time yourself running a specific distance and do the math from there.” Youngjae said with ease, as if it was the simplest answer. He stood from his chair, giving Daehyun a once over, “Do you have something to change into?”

Daehyun let out a huff, “No, why do you guys think I have some special outfit… all I do is move fast.”

Youngjae shrugged his shoulders and crossed the room to approach the shelf against the far wall. He dug through the mess of items that had been tossed onto the shelf until he found what he was looking for. He let out a soft “ah~”, the corner of his mouth up ticking just slightly as he turned to face Daehyun again with the stop watch now in his hand. “Alright, let’s go Speedy.”

Daehyun set his milkshake down on the nearest table, glancing around the bunker with a disappointed sigh. He would have to look around later, he guessed. He followed after Himchan and Youngjae, back up the stairs to the empty and less cool warehouse above. “So… do you want me to just… run around?” he asks, trying to be cool about things. He had never run for somebody in such close range. What if he tripped? What if something went wrong and his speed didn’t work or worse it worked too well? He wasn’t the best at stopping yet, what if he just crashed through the whole entire wall?

He snapped out of his daze, realizing that time was steadily moving slower around him the more he spiraled into his own thoughts. He shook his head, as if to clear the cobweb of thoughts, and worked to actively bring himself back into the moment, “Sorry—I zoned out. Can you repeat that?”

Youngjae tilted his head, “I haven’t said anything yet.” He stated, staring at Daehyun as if the question was the weirdest thing that had been said so far this evening. “What I was _going_ _to say_ , however, was that to get as close to an accurate time as we can, you will need to take 20 laps as close to the perimeter as possible. You will need to stop exactly where you started from, also.”

Daehyun nodded at the instruction. It didn’t seem like that difficult of a task. He just needed to run around the building a few times, not trip over his feet, and stop without wiping out. Cool. He could do this.

He wasn’t sure he could do this.

The food from earlier weighed heavy in his stomach and he wondered if maybe he shouldn’t have eaten so much. He felt sick. He walked over to the closest wall with hesitant steps, reaching out and touching the old and peeling spray paint of the graffiti decorating the wall. “I… uh… guess this will be my starting point?” He said, glancing over his shoulder at Himchan and Youngjae. “Do you have the stop watch ready?”

“Yup. On your mark… get set… go—”

Daehyun closed his eyes, taking a deep breath as he let the static thrumming beneath the surface of his skin warm his body. Time distorted around him, everything slowing to an almost standstill as Daehyun sank into the welcoming speed. The millisecond the beep of the stop watch let out it’s slow echo in the near frozen time, Daehyun took off. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Himchan and Youngjae moving as if he were playing a movie frame by frame. He couldn’t help but grin, digging his heels into the concrete of the warehouse floor and pushing himself to run faster.

He could do this.

Himchan was right, he was untouchable at this speed and Daehyun could feel that power coursing through his veins.

Twenty laps were over before he knew it and he came to a sliding halt, stumbling forward clumsily as he came out of the distorted time, everything rushing back into place around him as if he had pressed his metaphorical play button.

He couldn’t help but grin, giddy with the feeling of his speed still warming his body, “How was that—oh shit—” The pleased and proud smile was replaced by panic at the realization of just why he felt so warm. He only had a few seconds to realize what was happening before the sparks ignited, the singed material of his shirt and jeans suddenly catching fire. Daehyun twisted and turned, trying to kick off his shoes as he yanked his shirt off over his head. He nearly fell over backwards as his pants came next to join the pile of smoldering clothes on the concrete floor.

There was only a moment of silence before the realization of the situation dawned on Daehyun. He let out a small noise of embarrassment, his arms coming up to cover his bare chest as his cheeks flared up a bright red.

It was like all his worst high school nightmares had come true all at once.

“So…” Youngjae’s voice was filled with mirth as he walked over, turning over Daehyun’s ruined sneaker and clicking his tongue in thought. “You do need something specific to run in.” The fabric of the sneaker was still smoldering, and the rubber sole had almost completely melted. “Has this happened before?”

Daehyun puffed out his cheeks, arms still crossed over his chest, “N-no… I mean, the shoes, yes. I’ve never… burned my clothes off.” His voice gives away the mortification that he feels over the turn of events. He hadn’t known the night would include standing in front of the vigilante and his trigger-happy friend in his underwear. Daehyun stole a quick speed look down at his boxers, feeling just a slight moment of relief when he sees just plain, solid color boxer-briefs—at least he hadn’t decided to wear embarrassing cartoon print boxers today. “Do you have something I could borrow… please?”

“Yeh, down stairs. The cabinet on the left side. There’s some extra clothes in there for… emergencies.” Youngjae said, shaking his head at the gust of wind that brushed past him before he had even finished his sentence.

“How fast do you think he was going?” Himchan spoke up, glancing at the stopwatch in Youngjae’s hand. The frozen time of a mere 12.3 seconds flashing at them.

“A couple hundred miles per hour, give or take. I don’t think he even hit his top speed.” Youngjae says softly, “We need to find a way to run better tests. We need to know exactly what he can and cannot do.”

Himchan nodded his head, understanding the unspoken words at the end of Youngjae’s sentence. “I’ll make some calls. See if we can come up with something.”

Barely a moment later, another rush of wind ruffled their clothes and Daehyun slid into view, adjusting the collar of the too large t-shirt. His cheeks were still flushed a bright red, his hair windswept from all of the running. His eyes were wide, almost like a puppy as he asked softly, “So… was that okay?”

“Aside from the whole clothes on fire part, I would say it was more than okay, Speedy.”

The soft smile was replaced by a frown as Daehyun looked down. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other again, crossing his arms, “Don’t call me that…”

Youngjae raised an eyebrow, “Why not?”

“Because…” Daehyun let out a sigh, puffing his cheeks out, “I’m more than just fast…”

“Are you telling me that you can do other things—”

“No! No just… I’m not just my speed okay?” Daehyun finds himself unable to look at Youngjae or Himchan, trying to ignore the near constant chatter of is own thoughts so he could stay in the moment. He wasn’t sure what answer he expected, but Youngjae’s nonchalant shrug caught him off guard either way.

“No worries, I get it.” Youngjae said, knowing that there was something else going through Daehyun’s head that he wasn’t telling them. The desire to continue to press for more information was interrupted by the beeping alert on his phone and he sighed as he pulled it out and read through the alert. “We’ve got a break in down at the bank on 3rd.”

Daehyun watched the two move with ease, as if they were two parts of a very well oiled machine. “I could help, if you needed it—”

Youngjae flashed a bright smile, “As funny as I think it would be to see some petty criminals arrested by some guy in his boxers, no thanks. We got it this time.”

Daehyun nodded his head, pursing his lips as he let his thoughts race. Youngjae’s words gave him a small bubble of hope. He wasn’t sure when he had begun to think about how he could do more for the city just like Youngjae did and less about trying to stay hidden.

He shook his head, scooping up his ruined clothes so he could toss them in the trash before joining the pair downstairs, so he didn’t miss a moment of the action.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still a little uncertain about Youngjae's vigilante name. Hopefully, I will figure it out by next update so I can reveal it.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't currently have an update schedule for this. It should only be a few chapters long though. This is *mostly* going to follow Daehyun and will in fact feature a Generic Bad Guy of the Week. Please look forward to clichés and bad puns.


End file.
